Royce & Associates LP Has $8.55 Million Stake in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Royce & Associates LP trimmed its position in shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 6.4% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 41,706 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 2,862 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $8,553,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 718,607 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $116,307,000 after purchasing an additional 17,843 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 315,931 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $51,133,000 after purchasing an additional 2,460 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 734.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 272,122 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $55,804,000 after purchasing an additional 239,511 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 244,776 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $50,196,000 after purchasing an additional 21,092 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management boosted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 227,300 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $36,789,000 after purchasing an additional 10,900 shares in the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MTH has been the subject of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Raymond James lowered shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Wedbush upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $218.17.

Meritage Homes Stock Down 1.0 %

Meritage Homes stock opened at $179.41 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. Meritage Homes Co. has a 52-week low of $137.70 and a 52-week high of $213.98. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $193.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $184.24. The firm has a market cap of $6.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.12 and a beta of 1.82.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The company’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.98 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.28 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.58%.

Meritage Homes Profile

Meritage Homes Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs and builds single-family attached and detached homes in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Homebuilding and Financial Services. It acquires and develops land; and constructs, markets, and sells homes for entry-level and first move-up buyers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.